"Brexlit: Redefining Borders. An Introduction"

The present issue of Anglistica AION is predicated on the assumption that Brexit constitutes a cultural and imaginative crisis as much as a political one. The referendum revealed profound divisions within British society – between nations and regions, social classes, generations, and ideological positions – while concurrently reactivating established discourses of sovereignty, belonging, and national exceptionalism. These discourses did not emerge abruptly in the second decade of the twentyfirst century. Instead, they are informed by a more extensive cultural repository, wherein the nation has been repeatedly conceptualised as both imperilled and redeemable. Literary and cultural texts offer a privileged vantage point from which to trace these continuities and ruptures, illuminating how political identities are formed not only through policy and institutions, but also through stories, metaphors, and affective attachments.